Women's Tour 2022: Grace Brown wins Stage 4 in Wales, Lorena Wiebes relinquishes race lead

Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine) claimed a first road victory of the season at the Women’s Tour on Stage 4, beating Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon–SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) into second and third in a very select sprint finish. Having been a key member of a medium-sized group that successfully snapped the elastic from the peloton, and then the instigator of a move that reduced that break to ribbons, the Australian rider played the finale to perfection.

Ad/> Brown allowed Longo Borghini to lead out, locking onto her wheel and using the Italian to catapult her to the line. With the victory came the overall race lead, leaping up 26 places in the standings, as the efforts of Lorena Wiebes’ DSM team-mates proved insufficient to bring the race back.

/> Women’s Tour cycling‘What a sprint!’ – Brown wins Stage 4 at Women’s TourAN HOUR AGO The first of two special stages in Wales began with the more manageable of them, but still one the profile of which would present some serious challenges . The question of the day was whether Wiebes had enough in the tank — her own or that of her team — to overcome the most challenging climbs of the race so far and retain the yellow leader’s jersey.

The answer would come in the second half of the stage and it would be the sleep slopes of Hirnant Bank that would enable a split; those of the similarly challenging Bryn-y-Fedwen would prove decisive in preventing the race from coming back together. A four-rider break of Elena Cecchni (SD Worx), Mikayla Harvey (Canyon–SRAM), Maaike Boogaard (UAE Team ADQ) and Teuntje Beekhuis (Jumbo-Visma) made a good fist of things in the early stages.